IPCC's final report on climate change due tomorrow

Brace for impact

The final part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report is due to be published tomorrow. The IPCC scientists are expected to warn that the effects of climate change will be "abrupt and irreversible", according to reports.

The report is, as you might expect, a distillation of the IPCC's publications during 2007. It will also include material from the IPCC's various working groups that has not already been published.

"The science related to climate change is vast and complex, and the IPCC has worked with scientists around the world to collect, assess and process the body of solid and up-to-date scientific literature," the IPCC writes (pdf).

"The Synthesis Report... is the decisive effort to integrate and compact this wealth of information into a readable and concise document explicitly targeted to the policymakers."

The report is due to be published by UN boss Ban Ki Moon tomorrow morning, and is expected to be very strongly worded, as the panel hopes to persuade policymakers of the importance of action.

The report will undoubtedly attract criticism from those who believe the IPCC has become too politicised, and from those who do not find the worrisome predictions of the climate scientists convincing.

However, Royal Society president Martin Rees said the report would be a sobering reminder of how humanity has changed the planet. "This report must give extra impetus to next month's UN conference in Bali which must take constructive steps towards new international agreement, involving all nations, to tackle climate change," he added. ®